Courtesy of Entergy Corp.The James A. FitzPatrick nuclear plant at Nine Mile Point in Scriba is shown in an undated photo.

Scriba, NY – More than 1,000 workers are converging on the James A. FitzPatrick Nuclear Power Plant to begin refueling after the plant operated just shy of two years without stopping, the plant’s owner Entergy said Sunday.

FitzPatrick had operated 700 days “breaker to breaker,” or operating from one refueling to the next without having to shut down. It was the plant’s second consecutive operation without stopping, the company.

Earlier, the plant had operated 702 days without stopping.

“Breaker to breaker operation is a significant accomplishment for any plant, but achieving it back-to-back over two consecutive operating cycles is truly a noteworthy accomplishment,” said Mike Colomb, Entergy’s vice president at FitzPatrick.

This is the plant's 20th refueling.

During the outage, refueling and maintenance will be performed by the plant’s staff supplemented by Entergy employees from other nuclear power plants and contract workers, including pipefitters, boilermakers, electricians, laborers, valve technicians, engineers and radiation protection technicians.

More than 1,000 temporary workers will work at the plant during its refueling outage, the company said.

They will replace 196 fuel assemblies in the reactor and perform maintenance, tests and inspections on plant equipment, Entergy said.

Since its last refueling in October 2010, FitzPatrick has produced more than 14 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity, the company said.